[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 249 (Tuesday, December 30, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 75228-75229]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E3-00658]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission


 Notice of Scoping Meetings and Site Vist and Soliciting Scoping 
Comments

December 19, 2003.
    Take notice that the following hydroelectric application has been 
filed with the Commission and is available for public inspection.
    a. Type of Application: New Major License.
    b. Project No.: 2630-004.
    c. Date Filed: June 27, 2003.
    d. Applicant: PacifiCorp.
    e. Name of Project: Prospect Nos. 1, 2, and 4 Hydroelectric 
Project.
    f. Location: On the Rogue River, Middle Fork Rouge River, and Red 
Blanket Creek in Jackson County, near Prospect, Oregon. The project 
would not utilize federal lands.
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act 16 U.S.C. Sec. Sec.  791 
(a)-825(r).
    h. Applicant Contact: Toby Freeman, Hydro Licensing, 825 NE 
Multnomah Avenue, Suite 1500, Portland, OR 97232, (503) 813-6208.
    i. FERC Contact: Nick Jayjack at (202) 502-6073 or 
[email protected].
    j. Deadline for filing scoping comments: February 23, 2004.
    All documents (original and eight copies) should be filed with: 
Magalie R. Salas, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 
First Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426.
    The Commission's Rules of Practice require all intervenors filing 
documents with the Commission to serve a copy of that document on each 
person on the official service list for the project. Further, if an 
intervenor files comments or documents with the Commission relating to 
the merits of an issue that may affect the responsibilities of a 
particular resource agency, they must also serve a copy of the document 
on that resource agency.
    Scoping comments may be filed electronically via the Internet in 
lieu of paper. The Commission strongly encourages electronic filings. 
See 18 CFR 385.2001(a)(1)(iii) and the instructions on the Commission's 
Web site (http://www.ferc.gov) under the ``e-Filing'' link.
    k. This application is not ready for environmental analysis at this 
time.
    l. The existing Prospect Nos. 1, 2, and 4 Hydroelectric Project 
consists of: (1) A 10-foot-high, 165-foot-long concrete gravity-type 
overflow diversion dam on the Middle Fork Rogue River; (2) a 10-foot-
high, 1,160-foot-long concrete and earth-fill diversion dam on Red 
Blanket Creek; (3) a 50-foot-high, 384-foot-long concrete gravity 
diversion dam on the Rogue River; (4) a 260-acre-foot impoundment 
behind the North Fork diversion dam (the other two dams form minimal 
impoundments); (5) non-functional fishways at the Red Blanket Creek and 
Middle Fork Rogue River diversion dams; (6) a 9.25-mile-long water 
conveyance system composed of gunite-lined canals (24,967 feet), 
unlined earthen canals (4,426 feet), open-top woodstave flumes (6,609 
feet), woodstave flow lines (7,139 feet), and steel penstocks (1,796 
feet); (7) three powerhouses with a combined installed capacity of 
41,560-kilowatts; (8) three 69-kilovolt (kV) transmission lines (0.26, 
0.28, and 0.31 miles in length) and one 2.3-kV transmission line (0.6 
miles in length); (9) a developed recreation area known as North Fork 
Park; and (10) appurtenant facilities. The applicant is proposing 
certain non-power resource enhancements. The applicant estimates that 
the total average annual generation is 280,657 megawatt-hours. Power 
from the project serves the applicant's residential and commercial 
customers in the communities of northern Jackson County and southern 
Douglas County, Oregon.
    m. A copy of the application is available for review at the 
Commission in the Public Reference Room or may be viewed on the 
Commission's Web site at http://www.ferc.gov using the ``eLibrary'' 
link. Enter the docket number excluding the last three digits in the 
docket number field to access the document. For assistance, contact 
FERC Online Support at [email protected] or toll-free at 1-
866-208-3676, or for TTY, (202) 502-8659. A copy is also available for 
inspection and reproduction at the address in item h above.
    You may also register online at http://www.ferc.gov/esubscribenow.htm to be notified via e-mail of new filings and 
issuances related to this or other pending projects. For assistance, 
contact FERC Online Support.
    n. Scoping process.
    The Commission intends to prepare an Environmental Assessment (EA) 
for the proposed project in accordance with the National Environmental 
Policy Act. The EA will consider both site-specific and cumulative 
environmental impacts and reasonable alternatives to the proposed 
action.

Scoping Meetings

    Commission staff will conduct two scoping meetings. An evening 
meeting will focus on public input and a second, daytime meeting will 
focus on agency,

[[Page 75229]]

Indian tribe, and non-governmental organization input. All interested 
individuals, organizations, agencies, and Indian tribes are invited to 
attend one or both of the meetings, and to assist the staff in 
identifying the scope of the environmental issues that should be 
analyzed in the EA. The times and locations of these meetings are as 
follows:

Evening Scoping Meeting

    Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2004.
    Time: 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
    Location: Reston Hotel and Convention Center, 2300 Crater Lake 
Hwy., Medford, Oregon.

Daytime Scoping Meeting

    Date: Thursday, January 22, 2004.
    Time: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
    Location: Reston Hotel and Convention Center, 2300 Crater Lake 
Hwy., Medford, Oregon.
    Copies of the Scoping Document (SD1) outlining the subject areas to 
be addressed in the EA were distributed to parties on the Commission's 
mailing list. Copies of the SD1 will be available at the scoping 
meeting or may be viewed on the Web at http://www.ferc.gov using the 
``eLibrary'' link (see item m above).

Site Visit

    PacifiCorp and Commission staff will conduct a project site visit 
beginning at 8 a.m. on Thursday, January 22, 2004. If you would like to 
attend the site visit, please RSVP Arianne Poindexter, PacifiCorp at 
(503) 813-5513 by January 16, 2004. We will assemble at the Prospect 
Nos. 1, 2, and 4 Operator Office/Warehouse located at 1111 Mill Creek 
Drive, Prospect, Oregon. All participants will be responsible for their 
own transportation to the designated meeting site.

Objectives

    At the scoping meetings, staff will: (1) Summarize the 
environmental issues tentatively identified for analysis in the EA; (2) 
solicit from the meeting participants all available information, 
especially empirical data, on the resources at issue; (3) encourage 
statements from participants on issues that should be analyzed in the 
EA, including viewpoints in opposition to, or in support of, the 
staff's preliminary views; (4) determine the resource issues to be 
addressed in the EA; and (5) identify those issues that do not require 
a detailed analysis.

Procedures

    The meetings will be recorded by a stenographer and become part of 
the formal record of the Commission proceeding on the project.
    Individuals, organizations, agencies, and Indian tribes with 
environmental expertise and concerns are encouraged to attend the 
meetings and to assist Commission staff in defining and clarifying the 
issues to be addressed in the EA.

Magalie R. Salas,
 Secretary.
 [FR Doc. E3-00658 Filed 12-29-03; 8:45 am]
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